Ramblings about knitting, life, exploits, and other things.

Lace

October 08, 2010

While I have been plugging away at the Leyburn Socks and Inebriate of Air, neither looks like much more than you last saw them, so I'm not wasting bandwidth on progress pictures in which the progress is imperceptible.

Instead, I'll torture you with a peek into our mundane life.

The good: There was some cleaning done. As you may recall, I've got a temporarily defective shoulder. This week, we discovered that the problem may be related two some ribs that are out of alignment (ribs? really?). New therapy has included some chiropractic adjustments, some new exercises (I got introduced to new machines) and some deep tissue work in new places that has left me sore. Why is that relevant to the cleaning? Because I can't do it.

Luckily, Golf Pro came to my rescue:

Yes, it's Hot Tub cleaning time. I chose now for three reasons:

1) I've been told that it would be a good plan to treat my shoulder and ribs to a hot tub visit before my next adjustment;

2) It got down right chilly last week, and some folks I know have dealt with actual frost -- so Hot Tub weather is not far away; and

3) This week it's quite warm! So no one has to freeze to death to get the job done!

We drained it, and sprayed it out, and vacuumed it, and sprayed it, and vacuumed it back out, and sicced Bookworm on it (she got in with the cleanser and did round one), and sprayed it out, and vacuumed it, and then sicced Golf Pro on it.

Once it was all clean, we started filling it.

I then discovered that the back-stock on the magic thing that keeps us from having to use chlorine in the hot-tub had not been restocked. We had NONE! ACK. Thanks to the internets, I discovered that there is a shop about four miles away that carries it. And better still (to a gal staring at no hot-tub without such a thing, and a clock that says 4:30 p.m.), they were open until 5:30!

I dashed right out, bought some, and dashed straight home. And when I returned the tub was already this full.

The good? By the time dinner is over, the tub will be full, and heating up... and by bed time the water is likely to be warm enough to actually get in there! (Point 4 in why one should clean the hot tub and refill it while it's still warm out).

The bad: Bookworm's allergies got the best of her at school today, and she had to come home to hide in the dark with sinus and headache medicine.

Gabriel says: "Not Now. We has a headache"

The ugly:

Last night, I got it into my head that I needed some additional lace to knit to keep me from altering the Inebriate of Air pattern so far that no one would be able to discern its beginnings in the Emily Shawl. So, I peeked into the basket by the knitting chair, and re-discovered a prize from Seasons of Lace -- a kit to make Susan Pandorf's Dragonfly stole!

I got all stupid, and decided that rather than get my lazy bum out of the chair and take the yarn up stairs, set up the swift and winder, and wind the yarn like a sane person, I'd do it by hand.

Somewhere, something went badly wrong

I have NO idea how I got from a hank over one shoulder to this mess....

But I am stubborn. I will persevere. I will cast on this project! Before the WEBS order with my Valley Yarns Silk for Evenstar arrives...

October 05, 2010

It's Tuesday. Many folks out there do a ten things tuesday. I've got no themes today... So, Ten random things for you.

Band Things:

The girls have a band concert tonight -- I still need to exchange a pair of pants for the right size so that Bookworm has something to wear that fits.

Kitty needs new reeds, and a "ligature". Preferably tonight. I can't grab them on the way to pick them up from school because I've forgotten what size reed she needs.

Weekend things:

I got something wonderful in the mail on Saturday:

That, my friends, is a hand-written note. Yes -- real mail, from a real person, written by hand! How many of those do you see a year? Okay, what if you omit the Holiday cards? yeah, I thought so.

It's a thank you card from Kym. I supported her with far less than I wish I could have for her recent Light the Night walk fund-raiser for Leukemia. And, despite the way too much on her plate that she has (like most women I know), and the lingering follow-up stuff she has to do as a cancer survivor, and and despite now having a full time job (yay), she took the time to write a personal note -- to me. I feel so honored! I wanna drive right over there and hug her!

I also got some great pictures of Bookworm on Saturday --

As you can tell from the sequins (no the green has nothing to do with this, she's just playful), it was dress up time. 'cause she went to the Homecoming Dance.

She tried to hide -- but paparazza mom won out in the end, and got some nice pictures.

Who IS that chick? and where did she put my little girl?

Monday stuff

Monday night is knit night around here. Here's what I worked on

What? yes, I know that's not knitting. But it's also not DONE. and though I tried to finish it before Holiday Time last year, I failed. I'm not going to let another year go by without Bookworm's stocking acutally hanging by the fire instead of sitting on my lap with threads dangling everywhere. Too much of it still looks like this:

That's not to say no knitting is being done. Inebriate of Air now looks like this:

Note the rapidly dwindling skein of yarn:

That does not look like it's going to finish this baby. Which confirms my decision to use this color (of which I have about 6 skeins) instead of the other color, which I like better -- but of which I had but one skein.

Someone asked (here? on Facebook? on Ravelry?): It currently takes about 40 minutes to knit one row (in Continental -- I'm speeding up slowly, and the rows are getting shorter.. it'll likely be down to 1/2 and hour in no time).

October 03, 2010

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you'll notice that I have what appears to be an aversion to miles of garter stitch. In fact, the only thing larger than a baby sweater that you've ever seen me knit that is worked in garter was Mermaid. Mermaid kept my interest because of all the fun shaping builti into that garter stitch -- mindlessness was not part of that equation. And actually, when it came to the baby sweaters -- I used stockinette versions!

Given that history, you may find it odd that I've come to truly appreciate the miles of garter stitch that are involved with knitting Inebriate of Air (also known as my modified Emily Dickinson shawl). The original Emily got you into miles of garter stitch, starting with 545 stitches... In my insanity, mine started over a thousand. (And yes, I will be whining about that for a while. Sorry about that).

So, why am I enjoying all this garter?

I'm using it to practice continental knitting.

My gauge in contintental (or picking) is pretty much the same as my gauge in whatever it is you call the knitting in which one throws the yarn instead of picking it. But, even though there are all sorts of advantages to the continental style, I seem to drop into throwing every time. I mean EVERY time. Despite the plan...when I pick this up, I still find myself picking up the yarn with my right hand. I can't even blame this on having learned to crochet first, because I hold my yarn in my left hand when I crochet. I'm hoping that these long rows of garter (remember that whole starting with well over a thousand stitches part) will help my hands fall into this not-really-new habit. That will make it easier to really work that lovely Bohus kit that I've been planning to knit for so long. (I think I bought the kit something like three years ago.

September 20, 2010

I was using my yummy Tess' Designer Yarns Petite Silk, and enjoyed the opening gambit immensely.

But then I realized that it was never going to be more than a cute shawlette sort of thing. I don't wear those. I have no use for those whatsoever. So... the silk slipped into the frog pond, and all of the beads went back into their container.

Well, I'm finally casting on again -- not quite in time to finish during this Season (which ends Sept. 21), but what the heck. This time, I'm using some Jaggerspun Zephyr that's been lurking in my stash for a decade,(and which, despite this picture, is almost exactly the same color as the Petite Silk -- you'll see in a moment)

and I'm making a larger shawl.

Way larger.

First, I decided that instead of two panels (which yield a triangle shawl), I'd knit three. I hate the butt-point that triangle shawls can't help but having, and a three panel shawl won't have one. Thus, the shawl is wider by a third. But widening it that way wasn't gonna do a darned thing about it's length. I'll still be decreasing the same number of stitches in each section, and thus I'd have a short non-triangular bit of delight. So, I totted up the number of repeats of the lace edging I've chosen over that in the other shawl (17 per section), and added... almost a third (another 5 repeats). The end result -- I've not quite doubled the size of the shawl. The pattern I've forsaken calls for a cast on of 545 stitches. I'll have 1058 by the time I'm done.

Here it is at 715 stitches...

But, my lovely new stitch markers (I LOVE winning prizes), are making the counting easier than ever. I've figured out a new trick with these flexible ones. Instead of putting the marker for... oh, say 50 stitches ... on the needle, I just slip its loop between the 50th and 51st stitch....

and once I've cast on enough for a section, I put the next marker on the needle, and start stealing from the previous section again.

September 19, 2010

Friday night, just before heading out to dinner with some friends, I layed out the blocking squares, and spread Irtfa'a on the floor. (I had to get extras, since I'd under estimated the number by two in the width and one in the length)

She looks so small there, somehow. Until, you realize that each of those squares is a full 12" across.

Yep -- she's six feet across and a bit over three feet long. Unstretched! I blocked her by just pushing her into shape, stretching a little, but not much at all. While I am curious about how big she'd be if I blocked her hard, I think she'll fit me just fine the way she is. (Besides, those beads are likely to stretch her a little when she's worn).

Just a few beads...

Saturday's plans included weaving in the last of the ends, and --- with any luck -- an actual photo - shoot. But we all know about plans.

July 17, 2010

Ages ago, I knit the Weekender Shawl for Crystal Palace Yarns. They've used it at shows and such to show off their yummy Panda Silk yarn. It came home! It's been well over a year (I'd almost given up hope on seeing he dear thing again).

I took it out last night to a dinner dance. Outside, it was hot and sticky and yucky. Thus, the venue was air conditioned to death. I wore the shawl happily until the dancing started.

And the wonderful folks at CPY also sent a thank you/apology for taking so long present!

Yummy new yarn to play with!

and ..

...yes..

AND!!!)

And oddly, I never realized that their colors go together until I saw these two pictures next to each other.

July 12, 2010

So, I like to think that I'm a fairly competent knitter. I have friends who come to me with their knitting problems, and I fix them (or figure out what's wrong and show my friends how to fix them). I have even managed to design a pattern or two (well, more, but who's counting).

But Irtfa'a's edging charts are smacking me down. It took me far too long to master the chart for the first side, but I did. And now... it's taken days for me to get two whole repeats done on the other side.

July 04, 2010

I was supposedly knitting along with a bunch of folks over at Seasons of Lace on a pattern that's quite nice just the way it was written.

And then, there I was... on row two no less, and ... well... I changed it. I guess since they're knitting Emily Dickinson, and I'm knitting "Inebriate of Air", mine can be different right?

I decided that I wanted the points to get smaller a little more slowly.

I like how it's looking, and am anticipating blocking it stretched close to the way it was written, but not quite.

However, this little game I'm playing will mean I have to knit an extra row. And thus, I've already begun to fret that I'm pushing that whole "having enough yarn" question.

Even though I fear that I'll be bored with the whole miles of beaded garter stitch thing, I'm totally loving that this is a garter stitch shawl. It means that adding one row doesn't really mess you up.

I'm also loving that the designer has joined in our discussion on Ravelry.

I'm also, trying very hard not to think too much, because I'm having
more ideas for fun things to do with it.

June 30, 2010

She freely admits that she has days when she's counting impaired. Monday, it's clear that I was truly counting impaired. I was knitting that first lovely row of the shawl I'm calling Inebriate of Air, but whose designer called Emily Dickinson, when I was evidently afflicted with an
inability to discern the difference between 15 and 16.

The shawl's chart clearly shows that one should "bead 1, knit fifteen, bead 1, knit fifteen.... and so on". But I somehow read "bead 1, knit sixteen" instead. I did that for somewhat more than half of the row (i.e. just over 250 stitches) before catching on. I only caught on because Kitty, who is knitting the same shawl, got to the end and didn't have enough stitches.

I was not amused. She was not amused. We were collectively, unamused.

But, we were also collectively reconciled to the fact that we'd have to fix it.

Then, I was felled by a migraine that pretty much had me in bed for two solid days. Cause and effect? who knows. I'd prefer not to repeat the experiment. I mean seriously, pain so bad I could not read. Knitting was right out of the realm of possibility. That ol' ice pick behind the eyes kind of pain. I'm told I whimpered. She soldiered on, and got a lot of her beads moved.

Tonight, my head having given up the drama, I returned to the scene of my crime, and set about rearranging some beads.... That meant slipping everything back to about stitch 16. and then taking beads off the wrong stitches, and putting beads onto the right ones. I thought I was meticulous in my counting. I recounted every set of fifteen twice. But then, I let someone talk to me... and about 2/3 of the way through, I must have missed. Because when I got to the end, I didn't have enough stitches.

I went back and counted stitches between beads. Again.

And I found on set with sixteen stitches in it. I've slipped back to the offending bead, and am, once again, going along slipping, beading, un-beading, slipping. I think the yarn just wanted me to have done that to the WHOLE row and not just half.

Its a darned good thing this silk feels so nice in my hands, that's all I'm sayin'.

June 28, 2010

Now that I've cast on all these stitches for Emily Dickinson, and am facing row one of
the shawl, I'm wondering about bead size. I'm using Tess' Designer Yarns
Petite Silk (a score from my last trip to Maine, when I was able to
stop in to their Portland, ME shop), which calls itself a two-ply but
feels rather like cobweb to me. The yarn the designer used is a cobweb
weight. And yet, he's calling for 6/0 beads.

Now, ordinarily, I
would use a size 8/0 bead with that. Heck, since I use 8/0 beads on
most lace-weight, I might even try to go for 12/0 (except I think that
might exceed even my capacity for fussiness, what with there being no
crochet hook in the world that small, so I'd have to master the beading
with wire trick). But the pattern specifies size 6/0 beads. Bead sizes
are like wire sizes: the larger the number the smaller the bead. So the
specification of a 6/0 bead confuses me.

Are we looking for the
beads to be "large" within the shawl? Or is it merely that the original
yarn (Jamieson
& Smith 1-Ply Shetland Supreme) have some sort of halo that
makes 6/0 make more sense? (Other yarns used for this pattern include Rowan Kid Silk Haze (otherwise known in the
knit-blogiverse as "crack"), which definitely has a halo (and for which
I'd use 6/0 beads).

This bead thing is a pressing issue: I'm
sitting with my cast on finished, and two tubes of beads - in two different sizes and another in another color, dithering over
which one to use. The very first stitch requires a bead......

I think I've chosen the size (6/0 after all), but now I'm stuck with the color!

What do you think?

Here they are resting on the ball of yarn:

And here they are on a white background:

One of them looks like it's the SAME COLOR - dig that, my stash coughed up yarn, and then coughed up beads bought some other time in some other place, and they match. But I'm not sure I want exact matchy matchy -- 'cause then, all it will be is shine.... but then, this is Emily, and perhaps, all I want is shine.

For
now, I guess I'll go back to administrative duties for Seasons of Lace, writing up a tutorial for a two-end cast-on in response to a question on Ravelry, and
knitting Irtfa'a.

June 27, 2010

Despite my keen desire to finish Irtfa'a, the interminable nature of the edging has weakened my resolve. I've knit and beaded and knit, and knit and beaded and knit, and still, despite two diligent weeks of effort, I've yet to hit the center panel. I've not even made it to the 58 repeats that would have gotten me to the center of the shawl had I not added to it.

And so, I've allowed myself to be distracted ...

... by being faithful to the members of Seasons of Lace, whose season changed on Monday. Season changes mean lots of work for me. Plenty to do keeps me distracted from lace edging that won't end. Here's a basic list of the major tasks involved in season changes (each, of course, has many steps):

1. Running the raffles for prizes that are awarded to those who posted in various categories based on size or other attributes of the projects (beaded, self designed, handspun), including adding up how many entries each person has earned.

2. Determining winners for the judged categories (including, of course, rounding up the nominees), and building posts that reveal who all the nominees are. (While I know this part isn't interminable, it seems that way -- every day I've got another whole swack of nominations (okay I do ask for them), so sort and, where appropriate, add links and images to the posts I'm building, and sometimes to the poll I'm building).

3. Setting things up so that the members can vote for the Viewers' Choice award.

4. Building new Prize and Sponsor pages for the upcoming seasons; and of course, updating the Prize and sponsor pages for the now past season, announcing who won which prize.

5. Registering all the new users. (More daily efforts that never seem to end).

By being faithful to my family. Secretly, quietly, I've been knitting along on a sock. Yes. It's true, there's a sock. It's for Golf Pro. And now that it's gotten to the foot part, it's easy knitting in line.

Funny thing about this sock. It was looking all... skinny, what with the elastic in the yarn pulling things in. So I fretted that it would have wound up too small for Golf Pro's full sized man feet. So I had Bookworm try on the sock, since green is her favorite color. It fit her. She wants it. But... it also fits the Golf Pro. So it's his sock.

I'm also being faithful to the folks who are knitting a sock of my design. Evidently there's an error or something in the instructions for the Illinois Corn Prairie Sock. I'm tickled to death that it's one of the sock of the month KAL's in the 50 Socks 50 States book's Ravelry group. I'm not so tickled that this problem, which caused one knitter fits, got past both of my testers. This means that I'm re-knitting the heel of the sock.

I've found part of the problem --- a wee typo. I so hate wee typos.

And, I've even figured out a way to let casting on for something entirely new be "being faithful"! you see, Seasons of Lace often runs a KAL (or two) each season. And this season we're going to be knitting Emily Dickinson. So, I'm joining in.

And there, were have just under half of the stitches cast on. I do so hate patterns that start with cast on an interminable number of stitches. Well, okay, 545, but still. There are 275 stitches on that needle. I took a rest and went back to working on the sock heel.

Better still, Kitty will be knitting one too! We'll be Emilying all over the house in lace-ly solidarity.

Meanwhile, I may need to go back to the labyrinth --

Even during that part in the middle where you begin to wonder whether the path you're walking on ends, you know that the center is there to reach. And once you've enjoyed the peace at the center the journey out is just as long, but you know it ends. Though it begins to seem as though everything I'm knitting has no end, just like the labyrinth, I know there's a center, and I know there's an end.

June 21, 2010

I thought to myself, "Clearly, finishing this shawl by Monday night is right out of the realm of possibilities." and that wasn't even counting the fact that I had a party to throw that evening.

I did try to make it a party where knitting wasn't insane --The Divine Though Blogless Elizabeth was there. CGirl, whom those of you who read Seasons of Lace might recognize, was there. I even imported knitters - Janna came all the way from Iowa! But ya know, a party where more than half of the people are non-knitters is not a place to work on beaded wonders. Especially when you're the hostess.

The Golf Pro contributed lovely flowers to the decorations:

I don't think he remembers that these were prevalent at our wedding, but he brings them to me every so often anyway. I love it! Three stems are plenty to make the house smell lovely!

So... there was Sunday. Ordinarily, Sunday would be a good day to make progress -- maybe to get to, say the half way point of that edging? But THIS Sunday was Father's day, so we did what Golf Pro wanted to do. That did leave knitting time while he watched golf, but it also involved grocery shopping to get the ingredients to make a new recipe. Here is the stuffed flank steak before it hit the oven:

Notice the odd shape? That meant that though I was able to roll it up and cook it, and it did taste lovely, it did not come out looking like anything that you want to take pictures of, much less take pictures and show them to the world on your blog. It was well received by one and all, so I may yet do it again. If I do, I'll work on the shaping thing, and will take a picture if I ever get one that looks as good as it tastes

Today was all about the appointments and the driving to and fro. PT was a good thing, but those new exercises, and the intensity of the deep tissue work meant that this afternoon -- mostly I iced my shoulder (not a knitting friendly activity).

So, as the sun starts sinking on this, the longest day of the year, I've finished a whopping 42 repeats of the ending. At least I'm "off book" as it were, and no longer need to read the chart for every row. I've got about a good two dozen repeats left to get to the center section (note, that does not say the middle point).

This evening, we're headed out to do a labyrinth walk to celebrate the solstice (There WAS an official knitters' Solstice Walk that started about an hour ago, but it was over 90 degrees when they started, and the walk is through an open sunny prairie -- I'm too wimpy. We're bailing and doing a shorter more solitary labyrinth walk instead. I will likely take the Golf Pro's sock to work on, as I'm at that lovely section of the foot where you just knit and knit and knit.....spiraling along just like the labyrinth's path.

June 13, 2010

As you may recall, I'm participating (and moderating but that's a different issue) in Seasons of Lace - Spring into Lace 2010. That season ends on June 21.

The rules over there are that as long as you knit over 50% of a thing during the season, it qualifies for a raffle ticket in it's category if you finish it within the season. Imagine my glee when I realized that Irtfa'a was at 48% according to the percentage calculator when this season began!

So... On Tuesday last, I started the edging. Silly me, I was sure that with two whole weeks to go, I could whip out a little edging in that time frame. After all, it's only an 8 row repeat, and at it's worst it's a whopping 18 stitches wide!

Tuesday night, what with one thing and another, I got one repeat done. Not great, but I figured it out, and determined the bead placement for the thing (I'm using thirteen small (8/0) and three "large" (6/0) beads in each repeat.)

By the time I posted on Friday, I'd gotten to here:

Hmm, five repeats done. That does not look like lightening speed to me. But then, I HAD been working on other things (Kitty's sweater, finishing a BJS, preparing for a Board meeting, etc.). I continued in my delusion.

At the end of last night's knitting I'd gotten to here:

Ten repeats.

I'm in deep trouble.

Here's why:

1) According to the pattern, there are 58 repeats of each side of the edging (the left side mirrors the right side). That means that in the original, there are 116 repeats. Ten repeats in three days doesn't get me there.

2) I've increased the length of the shawl. That means that I've also increased the width. Following math and logic, that means that there are actually more than 116 repeats to do.

3) This is the first pattern in ages where ten repeats hasn't burned the pattern in my brain well enough that I don't need to really look at the chart every row. I am, thankfully, to the stage where I can look at the chart once per row... but I also keep screwing up because something in me refuses to believe that I really have to LOOK at the freakin' thing EVERY row.

So. If I'm going to finish this baby by June 21, I'm going to have to forsake all other activities for the week.

And take lots of Ibuprofen.

Somehow, I don't think that either my physical therapist or my orthopedist are going to find the need to finish a beaded edging to be a valid reason for re-scheduling their appointments.

Somehow, I'm pretty sure that Kitty will not find the need to finish this edging to be a valid reason for not taking her to school for the driver's ed safety course she starts on Monday (three weeks of that will supposedly prepare her for the behind the wheel part of the course).

Somehow, I'm equally sure that the folks who believe that we're hosting a party on the 19th won't understand that I couldn't prepare the food, or clean the kitchen, because I was too busy knitting a beaded edging. I'm guessing they'll think that an edging to knit is not a valid reason to blow off the party itself either.

I wonder if I can devise something that will let me ice the shoulder and knit at the same time......

June 12, 2010

I did finally recover from the Arthrogram/MRI ... but my shoulder is not as good today as it was the day before I went in. Grrr. Tonight, for example, I managed to twang it moving laundry from the front loading washer to the front loading dryer. I had to just sort of stand there and cringe and whimper.

Better yet, I get to wait until Tuesday to learn what that bloody awful test revealed (did I tell you that the doc canceled/rescheduled my appointment that was supposed to have been yesterday?).

On the other hand, I did get all the buttons sewn on the second BSJ

Bad picture, sigh, but it's dark outside, and that always means the pics are... welll.... less than they could be.

I also managed to squeeze out a second sleeve cap from the collection of wee balls of yarn, and have actually finished the Wolf Hoodie! It was scary close -- Here's how much of the silver yarn I have left:

This means that the i-cord that will go through the casing in the hood (and maybe even the body) will be out of the dark yarn. That, I've got plenty of. As soon as the zipper (special order, of course, sigh) arrives in the mail, I'll be installing it, and photographing the finished object. It lies, damp, in the laundry room as I type. Pseudo blocking.

I've even managed to get a couple of repeat's of Irtfa'a's border done:

It's mind boggling to me how long each of those repeats takes! I mean, c'mon! There are only eight rows per repeat, and the longest row has a whopping 18 stitches in it! How can they take so long. What? well, yeah, there are up to four beads (in two sizes) in every other row, but compared to the body, that's, well, nothin'!

Okay, I admit it, each repeat takes a tad less time, but there's all this flipping and stuff going on. I'm hoping that as I get more and more of the shawl bound off the flipping will be less cumbersome. (that is what's happening here, in a very circuitous way -- for each stitch of the body that gets used up, I knit two rows of a repeat, but it's happening). I suppose I could try knitting backwards (well, purling backwards), but I'm not sure about the ptogtbl's going backwards. And those appear in every wrong side row. I'll let you know if I try it.

Not much else to say. The big progress around here seems to be that I managed to put away all the needles on the first floor that are not actually in projects. And yes, that took far longer than any non-knitter would ever understand.

And no, that doesn't actually mean that ALL of the needles have been put away. There are still some escapees upstairs. In theory, I'll round them up in the next week and put them away too.

And next week -- Kitty starts.....

she starts......

Drivers Ed!!!!

At least it's only the Safety Section this time...she's not going behind the wheel just yet.....she's got to learn the rules of the road first -- and pass that test at the DMV.

June 02, 2010

We celebrated Memorial Day by taking a quick jaunt up to the Northwest Suburbs to visit friends. Said jaunt involved about 3.5 hours in the car ... each way. Since this journey did not require me to drive,I'm sure it will be no surprise to you that I knit in the car.

On the way to our destination, I worked on the BSJ in mystery yarn. And so, I took my lace on the road...

Here, we see the BSJ looking out the car window at our host's lovely back yard:

I'm still rather in love with the transformation that the BSJ makes.... from this

into an adorable baby sweater. (And yes, when I get a decent picture, I'll show you).

Our friends welcomed us with a nice pool party for us and another couple we all know. This was soon followed by a full on party party, as neighbors flowed in for a more expansive party. The knitting stayed in its bag for the rest of the visit (odd that).

In the morning, we enjoyed breakfast, and a quiet visit before hitting the road again.

On the way home, with a lovely finished but unsewn BSJ resting in my bag, I turned to my dear friend Irtfa'a.

Yes, I am indeed mad enough to not only knit lace on the road, I'll bead it in the car!

the end result of my mad car knitting..... I got to the end of the Quill and Feather chart by the end of the night on knit night!

Next up -- EDGING! (And I think I might even know where I'll put the beads in the edging).

May 29, 2010

I know I called you here to talk about lace... but first I've just gotta show you this...

Lookie! it's an iris blooming in my yard! It's one of the plants I put in recently to take the place of the grasses-from-hell that were trying to take over my yard.

But that's not why I'm here. I'm here to confess a bit of a lace attack.

You know that Baby Surprise Jacket I started yesterday? The stockinette version that I'm knitting out of random stash yarn that I don't even recall purchasing? Well, as you may have noticed, it's mostly blue and green and white. And the baby for whom it is being knit is a girl. And even though her mom is adamant that the baby sweater have no sign of pink in it, I didn't want it to look too... well ... masculine. No baby girl's mom wants to hear "what an handsome little fella" from strangers all day long.

May 21, 2010

I finished the Baby Surprise Jacket! (well, okay, it needs its buttons, but otherwise it's done). I happened to have in my stash a big ol' hank of sportweight yarn in the very same colorway as the sock yarn I was using to knit this sweater. Yes, it's weird. No, I"m not sure how it happened. But I'm grateful -- because it allowed me to bind off...

I love that it goes from this:

to this:

With only two wee shoulder seams!

And... today in the mail, I got these

Beads! Beads for Irtfa'a! (okay, and beads for something else, but that's not relevant to today's post. I believe in combining for reduced shipping whenever possible).

Repeat two of the Quill and Feather pattern here I come. (Oh Divine Though Blogless Elizabeth? we can start knitting again now).

April 27, 2010

I'm developing a love/hate relationship with this skein of Malabrigo Sock.

Ordinarily, I'm not a fan of olive greens. I like them well enough in olives, but not in... say ... yarn. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I hate olive green in yarns, because that would imply an investment of emotional energy that I'm not willing to give such yarns.

And yet...

I'm beginning to love the Turner colorway of Malabrigo Sock.

But I still hate the way my camera distorts it.

It's not quite that bright, and the contrast with the darker shade is more subtle. And it's not that blue anywhere, and yet it's not that yellow anywhere either -- it's all more greeeeen.

But it's perfect none-the-less.

And I love the soft feel of the yarn... I love the way it feels on my hands as it slides over my fingers. I love the way the fabric feels as I try it on to see exactly where the thumb should start...

And yet

I hate the loose spin that helps make the yarn so soft. I hate the way that makes the yarn susceptible to splitting when manipulating the weird twisty bits that seem to have infected my designs. I hate the way it gets all snaggy on my delicious Darn Pretty Needles with their pointy pointy points when I have to drop down and fix something because I made a design error (or a knitting error).

I also hate that this softness means that I'll likely never knit socks out of this yarn...

I love the way the pattern inspiration for these mitts have made the design concept so easy for me to see,

And I hate the way I'm making stupid mistakes because the yumminess of the yarn is distracting me.

And I hate that the yarn won't let me drop down to fix the mistakes -- but I love that it seems to show no sign of wear in the area that I've ripped back four times now (though I've hated the way it resisted going back on the needles when I did that).

And now...

I'm hoping that my concept for mitt construction won't make me crazy. But I'm loving what grew out of a simple twin leaf lace....

And I hate that the lighting/my camera/this yarn is not cooperating in getting a picture of it that you can really see.

April 25, 2010

(There are more pictures where she's kicking the ball and all that other good soccer stuff).

And I was merrily knitting away on a pair (okay, on one of a pair) of wrist warmers that I'm knitting for one of my dear dear friends that I've not gotten to see in person in almost a dozen years. I cast on what I was pretty sure were enough stitches ... and knit a good three inches in the designated lace pattern.

We all know where smug gets us, don't we.

It gets us a lovely trip to frogland.

But... that got me to do something much more interesting with the pattern design.

So today, while it rained... and rained.... and rained, I pretty much took the day off.

I watched a bunch of TV, clearing out stuff that has been sitting on the
DVR since I was too busy watching the Olympics to watch my "regular"
shows.

And while I did that, I fussed, and knit little swatchy things and fidgeted, and played with charting software...

and then cast on for real (with enough stitches this time) and knit some more...

and recharted some more...

And I'm quite pleased with the results! I just have to decide whether or not to SHOW them off... so the wonderful friend gets to watch them grow, or to hide them so they're a complete surprise when she gets them. I can at least show you the yummy yarn I'm knitting them from

Malabrigo Sock, in Turner (which is ever so much greener than it appears in this picture (and my photoshopping skills (what with not having photoshop) are less than they could be).

March 31, 2010

There was some standard stuff. And a delightful lunch with the lovely lady who took care of our pets while we were galavanting off to Atlanta.

And then there was the effort to fetch the curtains that mean my bedroom no longer has stark walls with bare windows. (I tried to keep the ones we had, but ... oh my gracious but they looked nasty next to the new colors). We pulled into Lowes, picked up the curtains that we'd ordered before the road trip, and headed back out to the car. Started the car, pulled out of our space, and then.... engine sounds stopped, and the car slowed instead speeding up when I pushed on the gas.

Dead car.

I tried to start it... it laughed at me, and didn't start.

Sigh.

I learned that Volkswagen is good to it's owners. I called my buddy at the dealer, he gave me the Roadside Assistance number. I called them. They asked me if I was in a safe place... once I said yes, they asked my phone number, and from that found my account, knew that my car was under warranty. They found me a wrecker, found the one that would come fastest. The wrecker arrived, and took me to the dealership where they gave me a loaner. Done. I lost an hour, and spent not one dime. I went home to enjoy my evening while they deal with the car problems.

As is the way of things, I enjoyed knit night, solved a few lace problems for my friends, made some progress on a gauntlet design, laughed a little, chatted a bunch and then...took a long hard look at the Wings of Bambu.

It went from this

To this...

and this.

sigh.

I would certainly have run out of yarn with the extra width I'd added. But, it turns out that I didn't quite need all that width. So... I've frogged it back, and will focus on making it long enough to keep me sane.

Of course, it wasn't until I uploaded the pictures that I noticed the error ... it's another ten rows back.

Did you see it? If you saw it, I'll just have to frog a bit more. But if you didn't.... maybe I can ignore it and knit forward for a while.

March 09, 2010

That's my pond. See all the "lovely" string algae? Yeah. Though the green is lovely after a winter of drab gray, the masses of string algae after only a couple of days above freezing is not so lovely. That water should be lovely and clear. I should be looking at pebbles, not string algae.

It's just WRONG that it's already this thick at the bottom of the waterfall too! What is UP with that!

And it's still a tad too early to take down the netting that protects the pond from all the falling leaves and other junk that gets in there and then gets stuck in the ice. Maybe where you are you can be confident that the ice is gone, but around here... let's just say I've made snow men in April.

Other things are Just RIGHT! Like another knit night full of laughter. Alas, this time I can't refer you to you tube videos. I got stuck in a bizarre riff on mini-sheep and Bedlington terriers (which I've always thought looked rather like lambs), and the possibility of using mini-sheep instead of lawnmowers... I can't repeat it... I'm not even sure what made it all so funny, but we laughed until we cried.

The laughing slowed my knitting down a bit... but I still made progress. Here is Irtfa'a three rows into the last chart before the edging!

I think maybe I can take out the life line that I put in at the beginning of the last chart, eh? You can even almost see the beginning of the new pattern taking shape!! But, in that picture anyway, you can't see the beads closely enough to figure out what I decided to do. I'm still hoping I made the right decision.

This is only slightly better. While it clearly reveals that I've opted for the larger beads, you won't be able to tell for another two rows that I've decided to use a blend of the larger and smaller beads in this section. I'd go for the big ones, but I fear that I won't have enough to make it through two repeats of the chart and the edging. I'm hoping to avoid ordering beads AGAIN for this shawl.

Of course, if I'm wrong, I'll just take out the wee beads, and suck it up to order more big ones. Ah well, that will be a good time to order the beads for Evenstar I guess.